Sunday Chat - 10 Confessions of a Beauty Addict

I write this from my bed, in my dressing gown, with a steaming mug of green tea. Yes it's four pm, but it's Sunday and I'm hung-over AF. I do apologise for my vulgarity, but that eggy bread I decided to make at 2pm doesn't feel like such a good idea anymore, and this laptop screen is so bright I'm squinting like I'm in sodding St Tropez or something.
Anyhow, real life shit aside, this post is going to be about all those things I notice because of my obsession with all things beauty. I hope you find them interesting or amusing, or that you relate them and feel my pain.


1. No, I'm not looking in the mirror again because I'm vain. I'm trying to see if this new foundation is sitting well over the primer I'm trialling it with today. Is it settling into my pores? I simply have to know.


2.Yes, if you're wearing make up I will probably be analysing it. This doesn't mean I'm judging you whatsoever, I'm just surveying what you have done with your face and whether I'm missing out on anything. A grey eyeliner wing? I like it. Interesting.


3. That being said, if your eyeshadow/contour/blush/foundation/concealer is really unblended and just plain shoddy, I might feel a little sorry for you.


4. I will have an opinion on the MAC lipstick you're talking about or wearing. And I will talk about MAC lipsticks as if they are old friends.


5. Choosing a lip colour before a night out is infinitely more exciting than choosing my drink. Or my outfit.


6. I often forget about my hair because I'm too busy lining my lips/perfecting my brows.


7.Speaking of brows, yours are telling me a lot about you, and I will also be analysing them along with the rest of your make up.


8. Even the shoddiest highstreets have a Boots or a Superdrug, so if you need to go the Gym/the bank/whatever, I will probably be happy for at least half an hour while I swatch and mooch around in either one.


9. Skincare is a way of life. Even if I'm getting home at 5am, I will find a way to clean my face and moisturise it at the very least.


10. I am proud of my make-up collection, I really enjoy re-organising and spending time considering what I own, what I'm missing and what I could get rid of. Will I ever use this lime green liner? Probably not, but you never know....




Thanks for reading!
Lou

H&M Lipstick | Review

So if you haven't heard the buzz about H&M Beauty...where have you been?
My local store has recently started stocking what I assume is the whole line which is really impressive - everything from eyeshadow to lipstains, brushes, cream blushes and nail varnishes.

I've had a good swatchy swatch and spent a very fair amount of time mooching around the testers, striping them up my arm. In the end, the lipsticks intrigued me the most, and there were so many amazing colours. If they weren't eight pound a pop I would definitely have got a fair few -not that I'm complaining, but normally when a drugstore lipstick is up there in price it normally comes with a 3 for 2 deal (eg. L'Oreal), which persuades me to buy more.

Aaanyway, after much deliberation I went for this shade, Brunette Ambition, a straight up mauve-y brown, unlike anything I own, but still neutral enough to wear during the day.

Even those these are really creamy, they wear for a good amount of time and wear off gracefully rather than flaking or patching.

I would definitely recommend the H&M lipsticks, and I will for sure be having a look at the other shades.

Thanks for reading :)

Lou

5 Beauty Things I'm Bad At | Sunday Chat

Soo, obviously I like beauty products. I love make-up and I love skincare, but unfortunately there are other parts of beauty I just can't get excited about, or I just never find time to do. Here is my top five:

1.Styling my hair.
I never ever have time to style my hair. Firstly, I don't know how to. I have two or three "styles" that I can do, but mostly I will leave it down or pull the top half into a bun or a clip. Ya know, standard. I envy those people who manage to straighten or curl, or even just make their hair look good on an everyday basis. How are you people doing this. Sorry guys, I was busy doing my fifteen- step skin care routine, don't mind my crazy bedhead. 

2.Painting my toe nails.
Now I'm not even joking, I have one nail varnish which is my genuine, designated toe colour. And I will never rotate or change that colour. It's a dark red in case youre wondering. And I will never touch up, refresh, or generally sort out my toe colour until I absolutely have to. So most of the time it's a chipped mess and it makes me sad whenever I look at my feet.

3. Fake tanning.
This is something which I really really want to be good at, but I just generally find that I can't really be bothered. It's the smell. And the getting naked, walking around, getting cold, waiting for it to stop being sticky bit. Just inconvenient. 

4. Cutting my sugar intake.
I am the first to moan when my skin is bad, which is all the time really. But I am also the first to eat a cupcake if there is one presented to me. I have the worst, most addictive sweet tooth ever and I love chocolate like a third parent and a first child. And I think even if my skin got astronomically horrible, I would still find it heartbreaking to go a day without a Peanut Butter KitKat. Because. Life.

5.Dying my hair.
Because of a terrifying incident when I was 16 when I got hairdye on my face and ended up in A&E (who am I), I have an irrational fear of dying my hair, even though it has since happened several times and I have been totally fine. I especially fear dying my hair whilst being unsupervised. Luckily, my friend did it for me about a year ago, and I've basically been rocking the grown-out-blonde look since then. Thank fuck that look is sort of okay at the moment, or I'd just look like a mess. I need to sort my shit out and either do it myself or get someone to do it for me.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
Lou x

Primark Does... Lips

The inner snob in me shivers a little a bit about putting something from Primark on my mouth. What if a small snotty child has sucked it or stuck it up it's nose or something? The grotesque possibilities are endless.
Snobbery aside, I bought these two lip products from Primark recently, and firstly, I'd like to comment that the packaging is actually fairly sleek looking. If you didn't know it was Primark, I think you'd be a little impressed, right?

Swatch- wise, this is the Matte Crayon in the shade 06. I have been pleasantly impressed with this product so far. I'm not hugely into matte lips at the moment, I'm more for the glossy, natural look as I have fairly small lips and I find the fresher- looking finishes just look...fresher on me. Ya get me? Anyway. It is smooth and thick feeling going onto the lips- not in a bad way- creamy drying down to a nice, even smooth finish. The key word here is 'dry', which is definitely does end up. BUT, not in an uncomfortable way. I found wear time to be surprisingly good on this, and instead of cracking or flaking (one reason I am wary of matte lips, even thought I love them), this tends to do a more stain-like fade on the lips.

The second swatch, and the photo below, is the lipliner used all over the lips.

It is a very creamy formula, really easy to apply, and definitely comparable to the Rimmel Exaggerate lip liners.

With the lip crayon added over the top, it makes the colour a little pinker and lighter, but the two definitely work colour-wise together. However, I'm not one for a thick, matte lip- as mentioned- so I don't think I would wear them together like this. Separately, they have a very similar creamy feeling which dries down to a comfortable matte.

The third swatch is Rimmel's East End Snob, which I added to compare the colours. It's pretty close to the lipliner, put a little pinker than the crayon, which is slightly more peach.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with these two products from Primark, you definitely can't go wrong for such a good price tag. Out of the two, I would recommend the lip liner, because it was £1 and a really nice staple pink/mauve colour.

Thanks for reading!
Lou x

June Faves

My June Favourites are up! Better late than never hey? Check it out on:

https://youtu.be/rAxWwq6nGj4   or search Lou'sBeautySpot on YouT'ube,

Hope you enjoy! :)
Lou x

5 Beauty Things I Learnt This Week | A bit of a ramble

1. I do need the Naked One Palette. And I did buy it. OOPs.

I love my Naked 2 palette, but I do tend to lean to warm tones a lot of the time, and the Naked 2 just wasn't doing it for me in the Summer sun, ya know? So I was morally obligated to buy it.

2. Tan is the new Tan.

I have spent so long (my whole life, lol), telling myself it's okay to be pale, and to embrace the natural colour of my skin. Well, I've decided that the natural colour of my skin is pretty sucky. I've always struggled with skin issues on my face, and skinniness issues on my body, despite the hefty pasta portions and chocolate bars I'm constantly shoving down my throat (nice), and I feel like being the colour of paper makes everything look worse than it is. comment on my sticky out collar bones, because they see that my skin isn't ghostly white and so they think, hey, she must be healthy, she's been running around in the sun. Or something. (I don't know?)

3. Something is breaking me the fuck out.

I had perfect skin for about 3 to 4 weeks, which hasn't happened since I was 15. I'm serious, it was a glorious time for me. I'd awaken every morning, and poke my face, stunned at my good luck. Unfortunately, now the spots are back, I'm even more sour about them than I was before. Fuck off, I'm 21 already, aren't I done with the wacky hormones?

4. I bought MAC Creme Cup

...and it's completely identical to Clinique Beige Pop. Well, about 95% identical,  which is defintiely too similar to justify owing both. I'm annoyed because I spent ages researching a nice pinky nude from MAC, settled on Creme Cup, and when it arrived, realised that I pretty much don't need it. Bummer.

5. I'm so not about that full coverage life.

Despite the skin problems, I can't seem to find a foundation which doesn't make my skin look like cake face at the moment. Everytime I commit to a 'foundation day' I instantly regret it, and spend the day wishing I had stuck to my BareMinerals Complexion Rescue (the love of my life). Everything makes me look the wrong colour, the wrong texture, and the wrong amount of wrinkly. Which is very wrinkly. Come on, wrinkles and spots? Why.


Hope you enjoyed this rambly post, thanks for reading!
Lou x

Travel Make - Up

When I visited Morocco recently, my make- up selection  proved surprisingly successful while I was away- so, I thought I would share it with you in a video! 

Go check it out on:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCECys22qgk3G01ozysH6rcA

I hope you enjoy it, please subscribe!

Thanks for reading

Lou x

Empties Video

Do you enjoy watching people talk through their rubbish? I do! And if you do too, I made an empties video which you should watch. Hooraayyyy!!

Check it out on : http://youtu.be/_cZlWMNilb8 ,subscribe, and it'll be great. Cool, yeah, see you there!
Thanks for reading!
Lou x

Laval Eyeshadow Palette ~ swatches and review

I really need to calm down with the old eyeshadow posts don't I...

I just couldnt resist sharing this one, it's so beautiful and so incredibly CHEAP.

This is the Laval Nude palette, available on amazon for £2. £2! 

Have a look at that amazing selection of shades...

This is genuinely my second one of these, I actually had to repurchase it because I used the first one up. 

Such a great collection of nudes, but with a twist- a really reddy brown, a purple, khaki's and two peachy shades.

I really recommend this palette if you're on a budget, they last really well and blend like a dream.

Here are the swatches:

Oh ma gosh. Dat shimmer tho....

Check out my video to see the peachy shades in action:

http://youtu.be/tAy_q_1xioY

Thanks for reading!

Lou xx

Budget Skincare ~ My Skincare Routine

I know that it's really hard to find skincare on a budget. Your skin is so important and it's really hard to understand what works and what kind of routine is good.

I've made a video on my budget skincare recommendations/ starter kit if you're just trying to settle into a skin routine, or you fancy a refresh.

Head over to 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZW4tzDFLhg

if you fancy a watch, I'm sorry about the open wardrobe in the background, it really annoys me too. Subscribe to keep up with my videos, and I hope you like what you find there :)

Thanks for reading!

Lou xx

The Pale Skin Problem

Hello!

If, like me, you suffer from having  incredibly pale skin, you will know my pain. This is my foundation collection, and not one among them- even the high end 'colour matched' ones are okay on my skin. Until very very recently (details later on), I have not been able to find a foundation on the highstreet which is the right colour for my fair skin. Let's face, when it says 'Ivory' it's nearly always lying. 

So- here is a full review of ALL of my foundations, with swatches, starting from left to right.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Light, 0.5

I did SO much research on this foundation, which is something like £26, and which I bought with birthday money. To be fair, the lady who served me on the counter clearly did NOT know what she was doing, and I probably should have hesitated before I splurged on this. However, I really wanted a fairly full coverage foundation with good staying power, but nothing as heavy as the original Double Wear. I thought, for my skin, which is combination/ oily, something like this would stick to my skin and work amazingly. Unfortunately, I really don't think it has better staying power than my highstreet foundations, and the colour is slightly too dark for me. So disappointing. However, as it was so expensive, I WILL use it in the Summer when -hopefully- my face will be marginally darker. I am quite dry around my eye area, and this foundation tended to cling to those dry patches. Yum. I found that this did  work wonders when mixed with my Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum- it was less cakey and a much more satin finish, but still too dark. This shade, 0.5 is the lightest, and still not light enough

Clinique Anti Blemish Solutions, 01 Alabaster

This is probably the second best match out of any of these foundations for my skin. Slightly lighter than the Estee Lauder, and I can just about get away with it. However, because it was expensive- for me- I only use it when I need the anti- blemish properties, i.e when I have bad skin. It is definitely matte, quite long-wearing, and does seem to be kind to my skin when it's playing up. However- still not pale enough. 

Maybelline Better Skin, Light Beige

When I bought this foundation, I was so excited that it wasn't called Ivory. Finally I had upgraded to beige, it was such an exciting day for me. This actually did work well for me in the Summer when I had been abroad a lot. It is quite pink- toned, but it really does stay very well. Lovely even finish which is between matte and brightening - probably Satin. I love this foundation, and I can't wait until my face is the right colour again. I've had a look at the lighter shades of this, and the lightest- which I think was called Ivory- was still too dark.

Rimmel Match Perfection, 101 Classic Ivory

Classic Ivory, what a joke. This is one of the two darkest of my foundations, and I'm actually not even sure what I think of it. Some days I would put it on and love it, some I would hate it. On me, it applied really dewy, but then throughout the day, I would find that it has faded to a matte- so strange. Really good staying power though, and does not cake at all on me. I'm not sure if I will be loving this in the summer as it feels quite heavy, and looks almost sweaty on my face just after it's gone on, which always puts me off

Rimmel Wake me Up, 100 Ivory

I love this foundation. It is so brightening, so longlasting and so...beautiful. However, when I wear this shade, I look like a sparkly orange. Lovely foundation, horrible colour. 

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum

I bought this foundation after hearing Fleur de Force (youtube) rave about it on her channel. I really do actually love it. The texture is unlike any other of my foundations, it goes on so smoothly, and really does make your skin look healthy. Unfortunately, 51 is the lightest colour, and this is too dark for me, and I think slightly too yellow- toned. This is the foundation I am most disappointed about, if Bourjois released a lighter shade (PLEASE) I would be on that straight away. 

Miss Sporty So Matte, 001 Ivory

This is actually the best match, and the cheapest, of my foundations. It has amazing staying power, honestly for £3.50 you can't go wrong with this, and it really IS Ivory, would you believe. However, even though the texture is fairly light, and it doesn't cake, I do not want to have matte skin. Even over an illuminating primer, this is too matte for me. Unfortunate, but true. Or maybe I'm just being fussy...

So, after despairing over the number of non- match foundations I own, especially the two expensive ones- cry- I found out that Rimmel have actually released, typically, a lighter shade in their Wake me Up and Match Perfection ranges. BRILLIANT. After spending a couple of weeks sulking, and trying to wear my current foundations, I caved and bought the new Rimmel Lasting Finish Nude in 010 Light Porcelain, which I will be reviewing in a future post.

Thank you for reading!

Lou x 

Glycolic Skin Care/ Review

Glycolic acid

What does it claim to do?-Glycolic acid is an exfoliator. It removes dead skin cells and 'resurfaces' the texture of your face. (see http://skincare.about.com/od/skin101/qt/Glycolic-Acid-Skin-Benefits.htm or have a look on Carolinehirons' website)

Having suffered from hormonal breakouts for over three years now, I'm up for trying anything to sort it out. I've changed contraceptive pill several times (TMI?) to see if it makes any difference, and I have to say my most recent one- Cerelle- has made my skin the best yet.

Anyway, years of breakouts around my chin and jaw area has left me with a sprinkling of little red scars, as well as the occasional spot or two as well. Delightful. Recently, I have been reading a lot of skincare blogs, finding out what I could use to help my scars heal and my skin improve.

After reading A LOT  of Caroline Hirons' blog (google her if you don't know her- she's amazing and hilarious to read), I noticed a lot of recommendations for acid toners and serums, especially for problem skin. And SO, after disregarding her recommendations as too expensive (I'm a student), I did a bit of poking around on the web and found this brand- Nip and Fab. I purchased the Glycolic Fix Serum, and the Exfoliating Facial Pads (which I believe are similar to the first aid beauty facial pads, and a fiver cheaper).

Here are my reviews-

There's not much to see of the serum- its a clear, light liquid which sinks into the skin really really quickly. It smells incredibly fresh, almost clinical, and I apply it in the evening before moisturiser after using a normal cleanser and toner. I began by using this in the morning, and the pads in the evening rather than the other way around because I didn't notice the small 'overnight' note on the serum bottle. Oops. However,it seems to work both ways. 

The pads are literally cotton wool circular pads soaked in liquid. These do smell strong, again very clinical, and I wouldn't recommend them if you can't stand things like that. However, they really feel- and smell- like they are doing something. Really fresh and cold, absolutely soaked in liquid so your face does get quite wet, but it does sink in pretty quickly. I use these in the mornings after a quick cleanse, before moisturiser and everything else.

I have noticed a big difference since I started using these two products. My skin has been so much better (I have also swapped milk to almond/soya milk which must also be having a good effect), and my scars really are fading. Unfortunately I don't have a before/after photograph but I have noticed my scars fading, and disappearing after continual use. I definitely think putting acid into your routine is a good idea, especially if you have problem skin like me.

For me, these are relatively expensive products (they came to about £18 together), and are probably the priciest part of my skincare routine. However, if, like me, you are short on the dollar, I would recommend having a look at this brand, as they seem to do the job. After I finish them both I may only repurchase one or the other- probably the serum- and see if the effects are still as noticable. 

Nip and Fab is available at Boots, Superdrug and Asos.

Lou x